Mississauga Leads Series 1-0
This is the series between possibly the two best teams in the Ontario Hockey League. Mississauga came out and stuck to their game plan from start to finish, get the lead, shut the opposition down and capitalize on their own chances.
Not to mention depend on JP Anderson to do what he does well in goal and that's stop pucks when the opposition does get chances. Anderson stopped all 23 shots he faced for his fourth shut out of these playoffs, in only his ninth game.
It didn't take Mississauga long to strike. Just 48 seconds in Jordan Mayer scored his 4th goal from Maxim Kitsyn Mika Partanen to make it 1-0 for the Majors. You have to think that Mike Visentin will not like seeing Kitsyn that much in this round after his performance at the World Junior Championships for Team Russia.
Devante Smith-Pelly would then score his fifth to make it 2-0 from Casey Cizikas to close out the first period scoring at 14:17. The Majors would out shoot the Ice Dogs 11-6 in the opening frame. Mississauga, with the league's best penalty kill, would prevent Niagara, with the leagues best powerplay, from scoring on their two chances. The Majors did not have any powerplay time in the period.
The second period would produce just one goal. That came at 7:31 when Jamie Wise scored his first goal of the playoffs from Derek Schoemakers and Joseph Cramarossa. The shots in the period were 11-10 in favor of Mississauga. Both teams were 0-2 on the powerplay. We should also mention that Niagara has the second best penalty kill in the league while Mississauga has the second best powerplay.
Frustration set in for Ryan Strome late in the period when, at 19:17 of the period, he got into a needless fight with Dylan DeMelo. Strome did not fair very well in the bought. It's not to say that Strome was giving up size or that DeMelo is a fighter himself, but after the game with the gathered media scrum Coach Williamson was asked if he minded Strome fighting and he replied with "He's here to score". When asked again he replied "He's here to score". We'll take that as a no Coach.
The Third period saw no goal scoring. The Majors would outshoot the Ice Dogs 9-7 for a total of 31-23 in the game. Both penalty kills were perfect on the night.Mississauga went 0-2 while Niagara went 0-5 on the night.
Game two goes Thursday night in the friendly confines in St Catherines.
No comments:
Post a Comment